Have you tried every diet under the sun only to find that the pounds just won’t shift?

Are the diets so dull and restrictive that you even though you start off great, feeling full of enthusiasm, soon enough you’re desperate for something to eat, anything to eat, that actually tastes good and satisfies your cravings?

There are some pretty weird diets out there aren’t there? And without a doubt most of them will help you to lose some weight at first. The problem is that the initial weight loss will be from your short term fat stores and from water. That’s the easiest weight to lose.

You drop a few pounds in the first week and think to yourself, hey this working! The good news staring back at you from the bathroom scale gives you the determination to carry on, even though you’re fed up of the food’s on your allowed list already. Then in the second week, the rate of weight loss slows down and sometimes you even gain a little weight back. And the slow weight loss continues until you just can’t do it anymore. You’re hungry and fed up and your will power packed its bags and left the building days ago. And you’ve still get those extra 10, 20, 60 lbs to shift.

Wouldn’t it be nice to find a diet that you can stick to for the long term? One that you know will bring results? That is nutritious and filling? That is full of delicious food? That just plain works?

Well, help is at hand with the Paleo Diet. And it’s pretty simple to follow. Once you learn some more about going Paleo, you’ll understand why this diet works, not just for weight loss, but for better health and more energy too. Paleo isn’t some nutty fad like the cabbage soup diet. The paleo diet is the diet we were designed to eat. It’s based on the foods that your very distant ancestors would have eaten. Back in the days when every human on the planet was a hunter gatherer. Back before we made the monumental mistake of settling down to become farmers of grain. Eating like a caveman could be the best health move you ever make.

The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race

“In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence,”

Homo sapiens (that’s us) and our ancestors have been on this earth for millions of years. And for millions of years our diets remained pretty much the same. Hunted meat, caught fish, grubbed up insects, honey, fruits and berries, root vegetables, edible herbs and leaves. Then 10,000 years ago we figured out how to farm.

10,000 years is the blink of an evolutionary eye.

10,000 years ago is when we started to get sick with degenerative and infectious diseases.

10,000 years ago is when we started to get fat.

Ancient humans moved away from their incredibly varied diet, rich in protein and nutrients to one based on high carbohydrate crops, wheat, corn, rice and potatoes. They switched to the grain based diet we eat today.

Those staples of our modern diets cause a lot of problems. They drive excess insulin production, which leads to fat storage and for many people metabolic disease. And they’re responsible for most of the health problems that plague our modern lives. Hippocrates said let food be thy medicine. Somehow we’ve turned it into poison.

The Food Pyramid Is Upside Down And ‘My Plate’ Is Broken

You’ve seen the government’s healthy eating guidelines I’m sure. They tell us it’s okay to eat bread, pasta, rice and cereals. They include potatoes (high carbohydrate food) in the vegetable category. They recommend fat free or low fat milk and tell us to use all fats sparingly. Why do they do that when those guidelines make us fat and sick? There’s just no excuse for that kind of misleading guidance today, when the evidence for the harm that this advice has caused is so overwhelming.

It might come as a surprise to you to learn that the junk food industry – from heavily subsidized grain farming all the way to the rows of processed junk on the supermarket shelves – has a lot to do with those guidelines.

The USDA is tasked withdeveloping and executing federal policies relating to farming, agriculture, forestry, and food. The USDA is also in charge of setting policy for nutritional guidelines. The USDA is also heavily influenced by lobbyists from Big Agriculture and Big food and often there is a revolving door between high level jobs at Big Ag/Big Food and jobs at the USDA. There’s a similar revolving door at Big Pharma and the FDA. Funny how that works isn’t it?

Can we really expect sound nutritional advice from an agency tasked with furthering the increase in US grain farming output and one influenced by companies that make a whole lot of dough from that grain? In a word. No.

The huge food conglomerates make an ‘unhealthy’ profit, from pushing food made from cheap, nutritionally empty ingredients. And the reason they can get cheap ingredients is that they lobby the government to subsidize their production. The government doesn’t subsidize farmers to grow vegetables, or to produce grass fed beef, or pasture raised eggs and poultry.

No, it hands over billions of dollars of taxpayers money every year, to make sure that peddlers of empty food get the cheapest ingredients, so that they can make big profits. Profits made at your expense in more ways than one. The junk food kings are the biggest welfare queens around.

The government issued its first set of dietary guidelines in 1980. Since then the number of Americans who are obese or suffer from type-2 diabetes has doubled.In the early 1960s only 10% of people in the U.S. were obese Today, one-third of Americans are obese and another third are overweight

Eating based on the ‘healthy’ food pyramid guidelines or the new simplified ‘My Plate’ will make you fat. It will make you sick. If the government had really wanted to get the nation eating healthy foods, it wouldn’t have tried to dumb the public down with the childish ‘My Plate’. No, it would have told the truth.

Well What Is The truth? What Is A Healthy Diet?

Want to know what a healthy diet looks like? Turn the food pyramid upside down and you’re there. Yep, that’s how utterly and criminally distorted the healthy eating guidelines have been for the last 30 plus years.

A real nutritious food pyramid would have healthy fats and vegetables as the bulk of your daily diet, followed by high quality protein – meat, poultry, fish, eggs – then a moderate amount of fruit and finally on top a small amount of grains and sugar.

And an upside down food pyramid is shockingly close to the Paleo Diet.

Eat Like A Caveman

Research shows that eating a Paleo diet provides better satiety per calorie than both Mediterranean style diets and low-fat diets. Satiety means feeling full up and feeling satisfied. That means the Paleo diet is more filling for the same number of calories.

This is key for weight loss since it means that you can eat less without fighting hunger or counting every calorie. Hunger isn’t just an uncomfortable rumbling in your tummy. Hunger is a complex mechanism controlled by your brain.

When your brain is sending you hunger signals it’s also busy lowering your metabolic rate to conserve energy and increasing your appetite in an effort to get you to go and find more food fast.

And it’s not necessarily more calories that your body is hungry for. If you aren’t getting nutrients inside your body, then your brain will keep on asking for them. But it doesn’t have a separate way to tell you to eat more vitamin B complex, or more calcium, or more magnesium, all it can do is give you that one hunger signal.

There’s another problem with hunger signalling too. If you suffer from metabolic syndrome – and if you’re overweight or obese, you probably do – your body is very good at hoarding energy, but it’s positively lousy at converting those energy stores back into fuel that you can use.

When you eat, your body fills up its short term energy stores, and then it’s supposed to use that energy to slowly fuel you until your next meal. When you have metabolic syndrome, it doesn’t do that very well. Even though you just ate 800 calories, your body thinks it’s starving and rings the dinner bell again. You go and eat and the cycle just repeats and repeats and your clothes get tighter and tighter.

Eating a Paleo diet has been shown to improve metabolic health and short circuit that viscous hunger cycle.

With a Paleo diet, you eat tasty, nourishing foods – including the ‘bad’ foods you’ve been told to avoid, like fat, red meat and eggs – and watch the pounds melt away. Seeing the number on the scale drop without experiencing hunger will make it easy to stay on track and achieve your weight loss goals. You won’t need to rely on fickle willpower.

The paleo diet is based on a plate full of vegetables, some nice tasty animal sourced protein, and lots of nutritious healthy fats. Foods which provide all of the macro and micronutrients that your body needs. And when your body gets those nutrients

It stops demanding more food

It stops concocting cravings

It stops fighting you.

A paleo fed body lets go of the weight. It shakes off metabolic syndrome. And it gives you your energy back. Following the Paleo diet lets you lose weight without even trying.

Sound good? Great. Let’s get a couple of things out of the way first though. The Paleo diet doesn’t mean you get to eat a dinner plate sized piece of prime rib 3 times a day. Too much protein plays whack-a-do with your insulin levels as much as too much sugar does.

And the Paelo diet is a diet for life. Which is no bad thing since it’s how we’re designed to eat! If you lose weight with Paleo and then go back to the standard American diet (SAD), you’ll gain the weight back and all of the health problems that go with lardy-butt syndrome.

One more note of caution. The Paleo community – yes there is such a thing, and it’s pretty darn big – has a large contingent of absolute health nuts. And I mean health nuts in a nice way, not in a derogatory way. But that means that a lot of the focus is on getting lean, ripped and shredded. And if you go and poke around in those corners of the internet on a quest to gather more information, you’ll find people talking about some serious levels of hard exercise and some serious amounts of Paleo friendly food intake to sustain that. That’s not the Paleo we want if we are trying to lose weight.

Alrighty let’s get down to business. I’m going to give you some food lists and a typical meal plan. It really is simple because natural foods are simple. Fill your shopping basket with fresh foods, not ones that you could stockpile in a bunker for the end of the world (most of the products on supermarket shelves).

If you can store it for an age without freezing it, then you shouldn’t be eating it.

You won’t find complicated recipes with the Paleo diet. There are no complicated instructions and rules. It’s so simple a caveman could… Oh wait 🙂

Animal Protein

Chicken

Turkey

Beef

Bacon

Bison

Goat

Pork

Lamb

Venison

Rabbit

Goose

Elk

Emu

Kangaroo

Eggs (duck, chicken, or goose)

Reindeer

Quail

Turtle

Ostrich

Pheasant

Tuna

Bass

Salmon

Halibut

Mackerel

Sardines

Tilapia

Red snapper

Shark

Sunfish

Swordfish

Trout

Crab

Crawfish

Shrimp

Clams

Lobster

Scallops

Oysters

Vegetables

Asparagus

Avocado

Artichoke hearts

Brussels sprouts

Carrots

Spinach

Celery

Broccoli

Zucchini

Cabbage

Peppers (all kinds)

Cauliflower

Parsley

Eggplant

Green onions

Kale

Mushrooms (not a vegetable but…)

Collard greens

Salad leaves

Herbs

Spices

Butternut squash*

Acorn squash*

Sweet potato*

Beets*

* in small amounts only

Fats

Coconut oil

Olive oil

Macadamia oil

Avocado oil

Grass-fed butter

Coconut milk

Almond milk

Nuts

Almonds

Cashews

Hazelnuts

Pecans

Pine nuts

Pumpkin seeds

Sunflower seeds

Macadamia nuts

Walnuts

Fruits

Apple

Avocado

Blackberries

coconut

Papaya

Peaches

Plums

Mango

Lychee

Blueberries

Grapes

Lemon

Strawberries

Watermelon

Pineapple Lime

Raspberries

Cantaloupe

Tangerine

Oranges

Meal Ideas

Planning your meals on the Paleo diet isn’t rocket science and you don’t need to count calories. These are the guidelines. A huge serving of non starchy vegetables – really eat as many as you like and liven them up with fat and herbs and spices, 1-2 palm sized pieces of fish or meat, or 3-4 eggs, a little fruit, a few nuts, a small amount of a starchy vegetable. You can eat three meals a day or skip a meal and eat more for the other two.

Large salad with tuna or salmon, slivered almonds and balsamic vinaigrette

Chicken or tuna with avocado, salad leaves, oil and vinegar dressing

Beef and vegetable soup

Hard boiled eggs with roasted vegetables

Dinners

Chuck roast with roasted zucchini

Greek style meatballs with roasted cauliflower

Sausage casserole

Spicy pork chilli

Indian chicken stir fry with cauliflower rice

Snacks

Carrot sticks with mustard mayonnaise

Berries

Handful of nuts or trail mix

Handful of olives

Piece of fruit

That’s pretty much it for the basics of the Paleo diet but some people will still struggle to lose weight, or may hit a plateau that they can’t break through. This could be because you’ve got undiagnosed thyroid problems or advanced metabolic syndrome with haywire hormones thwarting your efforts.

If this happens to you, don’t despair, you just need to try a different approach. And Dr Jack Kruse has one! He’s a neurosurgeon and optimal health educator who has extensively researched the brain chemistry involved in metabolic syndrome. He has helped people who found it impossible to lose weight, shed pounds and regain their health with his Paleo diet.

The information he’s put together is mind blowing, and it shines a very bright light on what is behind so many of our weight loss (and health) problems. His website is probably the best resource on the whole internet to learn about Leptin and the role it plays in our weight problems. He really gets down deep into the science which is a little heavy going for most of us, but he does have a getting started section on his website which is easier to get to grips with.

You can also ask questions, learn a lot and get friendly help in the forum. You may be advised to involve your health practitioner and get blood work done to determine just what your levels of certain hormones are. That way you won’t be casting around in the dark and you’ll get better advice.

There’s a book too, which details his version of the paleo diet, Epi Paleo Rx – The Prescription for Disease Reversal and Optimal Health.

So if the basic Paleo diet doesn’t work for you, although it works for most people, then head over and get some extra help. Dr Jack’s site is a fantastic resource. And be sure to check out the Monster thread in the forum!

If you’re into beauty treatments, haircare and generally just like to indulge yourself from time to time, chances are you’ve heard of grapeseed oil. Grapeseed oil can be used for many different things – it’s often thought of as a luxury ingredient, but many people use it as an everyday product – for a natural skin or haircare treatment or for a daily pampering session.

But what is this grapeseed oil phenomenon that’s got people rushing to the aisles of their local beauty and health stores? Is it justifiable to say that grapeseed oil can revitalise your hair, give it a glossy finish and make it truly dazzle? Well, many people – many happy, satisfied grapeseed oil users seem to think so and will testify to the ingredient’s hair-dazzling properties. We’ve collated a load of information to show how you can get naturally dazzling hair with grapeseed oil. Hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll be well-informed on everything to do with grapeseed oil and haircare – fingers crossed we would’ve steered you in the direction of the grapeseed oil compound and convinced you to add the haircare product to your shopping list next time you’re out and about. It’s a haircare product that really should be part of your beauty cabinet!

Milia (milium – singular) are tiny white, keratin-filled cysts most commonly found near the eyes, nose, cheeks, and forehead, although they can appear anywhere. They look like tiny white seeds and sit just below your skin’s surface and are generally 1-2 mm in diameter.

Primary milia are common in newborns although they can appear in children or young adults.

Secondary milia are milia that occur due to some form of skin damage – sun exposure, burns, dermabrasion or from using harsh skin care products or too much heavy moisturizer.

The planet that we live in is so amazing that when you look around you, you’ll see just how wonderful it is to be alive. One of the reasons that make our world so incredibly awesome is that everything you will ever need is just within reach. If you need food for nourishment, you can plant crops, vegetables or fruit-bearing trees in your yard. If you need a remedy for a particular ailment, there are herbs that you can use to treat your condition in a natural way. And if you need something to help you keep a healthy and youthful appearance, you will be surprised that you don’t really need to buy synthetic products to look and feel good.

When it comes to keeping your skin and hair look fabulous, you don’t really need to go for store-bought products. One of the most popular plants that can help you achieve just that is Aloe vera. In fact, it is commonly coined the “wonder plant”. This useful herb can be found anywhere, especially in countries with tropical climates.

If you don’t already know what a yuca, or a cassava, is you’re probably wondering right? Well, the yuca is a long tuberous and starchy root that can range in length, from around two to eight inches. The root has brown rough skin and a milky white interior flesh. As this vegetable bruises rather easily it is usually sold covered in a protective wax coating to prevent damage. More names for yuca include manioc, mandioca, yucca root and tapioca.

The yucca is native to Brazil and the tropical areas of America. It is widely grown all over Latin America and the Caribbean. Yuca is incredibly versatile in the ways it can be eaten, being boiled, baked, steamed, fried, mashed or even added to a stew. When cooked the root vegetable turns yellow, slightly translucent and sweet. When buying yuca look for firm roots with little or no soft spots and when possible buy the whole roots without their ends being cut off.

We often hear that phrase from life coaches and therapies recommending their protégé or patients who want to make a big 360° change in their lives. And often times, detoxifying really did change their lives for the better.

A young single mother who finally ended her toxic relationship with her boyfriend finally saw a dazzling light at the end of the tunnel. A young man who can’t seem to move forward with his life finally took the plunge by leaving his dead-end job and pursued his passion, and never looked back since. A divorcee with three kids who saw nothing good in her life until she made the move to leave her good-for-nothing friends for good.

About Us

At Active Beautiful our mission is to do everything we can to help you live a balanced, healthy and beautiful life. We are a blog that offers health advice written by Licensed Doctors with experience in the field and we concentrate on the categories of Nutrition, Fitness, Home Remedies, Beauty, and Sleep. We also feature products in most of our posts that we have reviewed and consider to be the best taking also into account consumer reviews where we receive a commission from Amazon when an order is placed through our site. Our pages also contain display banner ads from Google. Apart from the above two sources of revenue, all the content, links and media on our site are completely organic. Every article on our site is reviewed and updated within 3 years of its upload date to ensure all medical facts and statements remain true.